MY BIG BOY!

I swear it seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. Now he's going to school. And not just pre-school "Big Boy School". He was SOOOOO excited to go. I got home and started making his special 1st day of school breakfast (grits and sausage). He came into the living room and I said, "Hey are you excited to go to school today?" He said, "Is it today?" "Yes" "Really? Today? I get to go today? You promise it's today?" "YES!" "Hurry up with my breakfast so I can go....Shelby it's today!...Daddy I get to go to kindergarten today!" (Apparently, "today" was the key word of the day.) I've never seen him get dressed so fast. He didn't even give me any guff about putting gel in his hair (usually you would swear I was putting toxic ooze on his head or something by the way he reacts.)

What's a day like "today" without family pictures? (ok, so it was actually yesterday but go with me here)

See....I told you he was excited. He didn't give

me any guff about taking his pictures either...

Once pictures were done, we went for the biggest, most exciting part of the day... THE BUS!!! Every year, poor Preston begs to ride the bus. Without fail, he cries all the way home cause he didn't get to ride the bus with the girls. This year was especially hard because he knew he would be riding soon... but not quite yet. Every year, I walk the kids up to the bus stop on the 1st day and then meet them at the school to make sure they get into their classrooms ok. It's what Mama did, so it's what I do. Let me tell ya... that was a long and lonely walk home without my baby... I did ok until I ran into my neighbor (sweetest old lady you could ever hope to meet!) and she SINCERELY started crying because "they grow up so fast. He starting school today. Next thing you know he'll be graduating and going on a mission and then he'll get married and move away and you won't see him anymore, but he's so excited even though your heart is breaking...." I politely excused myself and got in my car before I burst into tears right there on the dang street.

How sweet are they, holding hands walking up to the bus stop??? I just thought Morgan looked so cute today so I had to get a picture....At the bus stop....Shelby never fails to crack me up!! She was being silly and when we first saw the bus coming up the street, she patted me on the shoulder and said, "Well mom... you're boys going off to become a man." HAHAHA!!!! Preston was nice enough to tell me that if I got too bored at home without him, I could just come to the school and he would play with me during his toy breaks. How stinkin' cute is that?I also got video of him getting on the school bus as well as video of him getting off at the school... (I'll spare the majority of you, but it's available to those that really want to see it lol) When he got off the bus he said that the bus was like a "time machine" I have no clue what that meant, but he thought it was pretty exciting.

Preston with Mrs. Langford. Heaven help this poor woman.. HA! He wasn't overly thrilled about having to wear a name tag. He said, "You already know my name. I'm here every day remember." (He is always with me while I'm doing my PTA stuff.)

When I picked him up, he ran to me with a huge smile on his face. I asked if he had fun and he said, "Ya, I had so much fun I forgot to miss you.... Sorry mom!" LOVE IT!!!!

The Results Are In

Shelby made Jr. Prep Company and Morgan made Mini Company. These girls have worked SO hard and I'm so proud of them. They are both REALLY excited!!!!The girls with the flowers that we gave them for trying out. (for some reason they've decided to give Daddy all the credit for them though... sheesh!)

Shelby is excited that some of her friends are on her team and she had to overcome some SERIOUS nerves to even try out. She did it though and is SO glad she did!! Shelby ROCKS!
I want to add that Morgan made it even though she's never danced for this studio (other than hip hop) and hasn't really taken dance since she was 4 years old! GO MORGAN!!!!!

First Day of School

The girls started school yesterday. I can't believe that we have a 3rd grader and a 2nd grader. What's even harder to believe is that on August 31st, my baby is going to be in Kindergarten! How the heck did that happen??? The girls have GREAT teachers. They came home SO excited. Morgan has the same teacher that Shelby had last year. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her!!! Last year, she knew that I would be requesting her for Morgan so she sort of started taking her under her wing then. Morgan wasn't nervous at all. She already knew her pretty well which really helped. I've yet to convince Mrs. Fuson that Morgan and Shelby have VERY different personalities. They've had the same teachers every year and that's one of the comments that both of the previous teachers have made...."I just can't get over how different their little personalities are..." HA!Shelby has a male teacher for the first time. I was a little worried about how she would react to that, but she ADORES him. He's such a great person and from what I've heard, a phenomenal teacher. Although, he does a lot of homework assignments online so now, of course, Shelby thinks she needs her own laptop... um... ya... not gonna happen lol

I don't know why I love this picture so much, but I just think it's the cutest thing ever! They were so excited to ride the bus that they were practically running up to the bus stop.
I'll definitely be posting about Preston's 1st day. He had his open house yesterday and has his assessment on Wednesday. I was so excited when he kept missing letters in the alphabet this morning. He really knows his ABC's but I really want him to go to all day kindergarten. Yes, I know that's awful of me, but with my schedule it would make my life so much easier. (even though I'm gonna go crazy with him gone every day.)But, I really do think he could use the extra help, so we'll see!!!!
Dance tryout results are supposed to be up any minute....

Go DRAGONS

That title was easy since BOTH kids team names are THE DRAGONS (much shorter than the Blue Bunny Crushers from last year) . Last year, Preston was much more interested in wrestling with his team mates than he was in playing soccer. Not this year. He's a man on a mission!! In his first game he scored 3 goals. After his 3rd goal his coach told him he was "a natural". Preston ran over to the other team. Pointed to our goal and said, "Hey did you guys see how many goals I scored? Yeah it's cause I'm a natural." HAHA!! Ok so now we just need to work on his humility!! Morgan has been pretty decent at soccer from day one. In the spring she really excelled and so far this year has been no different. She scored 8 goals in her first game. After her 2nd goal her coach's husband said, "Damn, she's good!" and after her 6th goal the coach said, "Ya, we struck gold with her!" She LOVES soccer. Preston was determined to teach Morgan how to score as many goals has he scored. I finally said, "Buddy, she's already scored 7." He held up his fingers and said, "1..2..3..4.......Ah Crap!" Poor little guy lol She has another game tonight.
We didn't forget about Shelby. Both girls are trying out for dance companies this year. Shelby is taking more dance classes than Morgan and will get to play basketball this winter. We'll find out what teams they made on Friday and I'll post as soon as we know something!!

New Project

The girls and I got tired of making the flower clips and watch bands pretty quick. Here's the latest and greatest project we're doing:

Start with a Scrabble game piece and screw a little eye screw in the top. We just got ours from the hardware store. They're cheaper and easier to find than jewelry supplies.

Measure and cut a piece of scrapbook paper or small picture. and glue it to the Scrabble piece with a glue stick.Then cover it with epoxy or resin to give it that glass/tile look. We used Epoxy because 1)it's cheaper than resin and 2)it sets up a lot faster than resin.... anyway... spread a small amount of epoxy on the game piece and let it sit until it's completely cured. (about 20 minutes) Add a chain and WALLAH.... you have darling little interchangeable necklaces.

Why drive to the coast when you can stay in Cedar.

That's right folks, Cedar City has a new "beach". The city is building a new HUGE aquatic center and as part of it, they've built a little man made lake and a beach. This week our great friends, the Daltons, came to visit so we decided to go check the new lake out. It's actually really nice. It's brand new so it's still really clean and it wasn't overcrowded. The kids had a blast!

Family Vacation Part 3

The 3rd and final day of our vacation started off in Disneyland. The MLB Allstar game was in Anaheim this year, so they had a lot of the festivities at Disneyland on Tuesday. The TV networks did a big broadcast from the park, and they threw a parade for all of the players, coaches and everyone else involved in the Allstar game. As we were walking up main street, the kids wanted to know why all the people were sitting on the side of the street. Chris and I convinced them that they were throwing a special parade just for us. They walked a good 30 yards waving to the crowd before they realized we were teasing them. All 3 of them had these big smiles on their faces and were doing the most perfect "parade waves" you've ever seen. Chris and I were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe, let alone get a picture.

Gotta love Mickey!

Surprisingly, Preston wasn't too impressed with Minnie Mouse. HA!
Me and the girls in Minnie's cottage
After a trip through Toon Town, we headed over to California Adventure. (It's basically MGM for those of you back home)
The girls were STOKED to ride the Tower of Terror and the California Screamin' roller coaster. Preston was NOT feelin' either one of those!!!!! They let us do a passenger switch on the Tower of Terror so the girls got to ride 2 times in a row. They thought they were pretty tough stuff!!! HA! I've ridden it before at MGM, and I was very quickly reminded why I swore I'd never do it again! It's sad when my 7 and 8 year old are tougher than I am!

Why can't all vending machines be this honest????
Preston LOVES Lightening McQueen. Everything this child owns has Lightening on it. To say that he was a little excited to meet "the REAL" Lightening and Mater would definitely be an understatement. However, he was extrememly disappointed that Lightening couldn't autograph his book. HA!
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Morgan LOVES Jessie!!!! We got soooo lucky to get this picture. We waited in line for 20 minutes, only for them to decide that time was up and that Woody and Jessie needed to leave when we were NEXT!! I BEGGED the guy to please just let us slip in.

Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE FIREWORKS!!! The fireworks at Disneyland definitely do not disappoint. Morgan got so excited when Tinkerbell flew over the crowd and sprinkled her "pixie dust". Unfortunately Shelby missed it, because she was watching the the big fireworks. Silly girl!!!
After a VERY long day, we made our way back to our hotel and crashed before heading home on Wednesday. I don't have the best luck coming home from Disney, and this trip was no different. One time, Charon and I got lost on the way home and ended up just outside of TAMPA!!! (2 1/2 hours from home!) Another time, I fell asleep in the car and dreamed that we were going off the side of the road so I woke up and jerked the steering wheel, almost causing us to wreck. This time, I got sick!
Despite the ride home, it was an amazing vacation. The kids are at the perfect age to go. They were all big enough to ride all of the rides, but still young enough to appreciate the magic of the place. LOVED! IT!

Family Vacation Part2

Well this picture pretty much sums up the Sea World experience. The girls LOVED it!!! Preston...... not so much.

The girls were absolutely fascinated by the whales.
Preston was ticked off that we didn't get soaked even though we were in "the soak zone"

Morgan and Preston really liked the dolphin show and carried their stuffed dolphins ALL OVER the park.
Shelby just thoroughly enjoyed the frozen lemonade. I think she had 5 of them. My kids are WAY into the whole "punch buggy" thing. They got SOOOOO excited when they saw the "shamu punch buggy."
After our day in the park, we explored San Diego for a couple hours then made our way back to L.A. Sea World was fun, but not necessarily a place we'll be making a special trip to!
Part 3 to come.

Family Vacation Day 1

We've been wanting to take the kids to Disneyland for years, but have never been able to go. This year we finally made the trip!!! I've been to Disneyworld at least 50 times, but never Disneyland. We had a blast!!! I don't let my kids go to any kind of carnival (carnies freak me out), so they'd never seen anything like this in their lives. Preston was completely terrified on all of the roller coasters... while he was on them. When he got off he'd either say, "That wasn't too scary." or "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!" but he had ZERO desire to go on the rides again!
We were a little concerned about going in the middle of the summer, but it worked out perfectly. Sunday was overcast so the weather was great and there was hardly any crowd whatsoever.

My little Princesses and the castle. Morgan was SO disappointed that Sleeping Beauty wasn't actually in her castle!When we were waiting in line to meet the princesses, this little girl latched on to Shelby. She was so stinkin' cute! She sat there for about 10 minutes showing Shelby all of her autographs and asking her questions.
What would a trip to Disneyland be without a princess make over? This is what Preston thought of the whole Princess thing..... This is actually one of my all time fave things to see at Disney. It always amazes me to see little kids fall asleep with so much going on around them! I have to admit that it melted my heart to watch Chris carry him around the park for over an hour.Doesn't every little boy have to try to pull the sword out???



One of the funniest things of the trip: Halfway through the Small World ride, Preston stood up in the boat, covered his ears and screamed "STOP SINGING THAT SONG" when that didn't work, he pulled out his Buzz Lightyear laser gun and started shooting all the robots. We were cracking up!!!You have to have the Mickey Ears! (I have to say, they have MUCH cooler ears now than they did when I was little)
FYI: When Disneyland says "Mile High Cake" they aren't kidding. Look at the size of this thing. Keep in mind that the plate it's on is a FULL SIZE DINNER PLATE!
Parts 2 and 3 to come.......